They have kinda always been a thing. Nazi’s were just one flavor of nationalist, after all.
Charles de Gaulle defined nationalism best: “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”
For most people, it’s extremely easy to blame others for problems of their own creation. By the same token, people who can’t see their own shortcomings will also usually latch on to leaders who are able to amplify that bias. For the Nazis, it was mostly against the jews.
Also, what you are seeing in the news is partially amplified by the news itself but also, politicians are getting more brazen in mustering the support of those groups. This has lead to people being a little more open about something that needs to stay taboo, IMHO.
Whatever is wrong in your life is not your fault, nor is it even the fault of random chance/fate/god/what have you. It not no one’s fault either. There is a clear, definable enemy called X. X is the problem, and if we just deal with X, then you will have the life you dream of. I will make sure X never hurts you again.
Another interesting property of fascists is how their “enemy” is described in lurid but contradicting ways that don’t make any sense when you think about it for more than half a second.
One minute, the “enemy” is described as weak, pathetic, disgusting, sub-human, sickly, cowardly, stupid little losers who can’t punch out of a wet paper bag. The next minute, the “enemy” is described as threatening, all-seeing, clever, oppressive, bold and brazen, powerful, influential, dominating the government, ruining people’s lives, etc.
It’s maddening. And some people are absolute suckers for it.
White supremacy and the nazi ideology are ass to ass. The only thing they didn’t share was their hatred for Jews but guess who domesticated that ideology? Neo-Nazis.
Millions of people died from COVID yet look how many denied its effects (and still do) and didn’t/don’t get vaccinated. Because it wasn’t happening to them right there in their faces (and in some cases it was and they still denied it on their death beds). If people can’t even learn from that as it happened in real time all around them, what hope do we have for people to care about and learn from things that happened 80-90 years ago?
Economic despair, political instability, and rampant nationalism are key conditions that facilitated the rise of Nazis in post-World War I Germany and are similarly contributing to the resurgence of such ideologies today. Modern times have seen these conditions fostering the rise of leaders like Donald Trump, where both he and historical figures like Hitler capitalized on themes of national decline, utilized nationalist rhetoric, exploited fears about outsiders and minorities, and exhibited authoritarian tendencies. This recurrence of historical patterns underscores how past ideologies can be revived, shaping contemporary political climates and contributing to the emergence of movements that mirror the early 20th-century Nazi regime.